Cross Oceans
by AngeK15
Summary: They won the relay medley, and are now preparing for nationals. But now a new team stands in the Iwatobi swim club's way. Hints of Mako/Haru, Rei/Nagisa, Gou/Seijuurou. R&R, constructive criticism welcome!
1. Ice Water

**A/N: Hi guys! This is my first chaptered fic in a very long time! So it's gonna have hints of Mako/Haru, Rei/Nagisa but it's probably not going to go any further like the anime, so mostly just friendship stuffs :3 Anyway, I hope you like it and please take the time to review! I beg for constructive criticism. I hope you like it!**

Chapter One: Ice Water

A serene smile graced Makoto's features, the sun shone down heavily upon the ground, warming his back as he walked through the gates to the swimming pool. He and Haru usually walked to the pool together, but Makoto had to run some errands for his mother before practice, so he told Haru to go on without him.

After they won the regionals, the members of Iwatobi Swim Club had realised that they needed to improve much more to get to where they wanted to be for the Nationals. Gou had them working twice as hard as they had when they were actually preparing for the regionals, because as Gou had said: They were competing against the top swimmers in the entire nation.

With Rin in the team, they were better and faster than they ever were before, and usually whenever Makoto arrived at the club, he would often find Rin helping Rei to improve his butterfly stroke so he could match up to his pace.

When Makoto arrived at the pool, he found Nagisa, Rei and Haru already there, in their swimming gear and stretching their muscles. Nagisa waved cheerfully when he saw Makoto there and bounded towards Makoto, bouncing on the balls of his feet. He had way too much energy for someone so small. He grinned at Makoto.

"Mako-chan!" He called out. "Do you know where Rin and Gou are?"

Makoto scanned the area around him. The pool was glistening with the sun on the water, and Haru looked just about ready to jump in. Rin and Gou were nowhere to be found, and that was odd since Gou was the team manager, she always made it a point upon herself to get there before everyone else did, Rin usually tagging along with her.

"Oh? Are they not here yet?" He asked, his eyebrows knitting together. He made his way next to Haru and Rei, sitting down with them.

Nagisa shook his head. "Nope! Rei and I thought you would know, since you were late too!"

"I told you. Makoto had to do something for his mother." Haru said, unblinking eyes staring at Nagisa.

Nagisa waved him off. "Oh well! Should we call them?" He asked cheerfully, walking towards the stands where he kept his duffel bag and his mobile phone without waiting for an answer.

"Might as well." Rei called out. Nagisa unzipped his light blue duffel bag, pulling out a smart phone, walking back towards were Haru, Makoto and Rei sat, with their feet in the water. He dialled a number, pressed a button and put it on loudspeaker. The dialling tone sounded, and then it started ringing. A few rings later, someone picked up the phone.

"Hello?" A drowsy voice breathed.

"Rin-chan! Aren't you awake yet? We're waiting on you and Gou!" Nagisa chided.

A groan sounded through the speaker. "Eh! My alarm didn't go off! It's a piece of junk. Gou should've woke me up or something anyway." There was the sound of the bed creaking. "We'll be there as soon as we can." He said seriously, and then the phone went off.

"Well… I suppose we'll just have to wait for them until get into the pool. We can't start without them after all." Rei said after a few moments.

"How about we relax in the pool, we shouldn't over exert ourselves before we even start though." Makoto said with a smile.

He looked at Haru, whose face brightened up and without a warning he slipped into the pool gracefully, without even a splash.

"I'm going to wait for them." Rei announced, moving over to sit near the stands.

Nagisa made a noise of discontentment. "You're so boring Rei-chan! Come into the pool!"

Rei rolled his eyes. "I'll come into the pool when I want to." Nagisa wandered over to Rei. "Eh-! Nagisa stop pulling on my arm! Hey, stop it!"

There was a splash as Nagisa pushed Rei into the pool. He emerged spluttering water out of his mouth, and calling out indignantly, pulling off his glasses, and swimming towards the edge, and swung out of the pool. "Hey! What did you do that for! You could have ruined my glasses!"

Nagisa grinned innocently, his feet at the edge of the pool, giggling a little. Rei walked towards his backpack, sitting a little while away from where Nagisa was, unzipped it and placed his glasses in, and pulled out his prescription goggles, putting them on.

"Ah, so now you want to go into the pool?" Nagisa asked.

"Only because you pushed me in!" Rei explained resentfully. Makoto noticed his mouth turn up into a mischievous grin. "Now, it's your turn." Before Nagisa could react, he pushed him into the pool.

Makoto refrained from rolling his eyes. The two of the bickered like an old married couple. It was sort of endearing. He jumped into the pool himself, Nagisa appearing from the water as he dove in.

The cool water enclosed around him and he swam over to Haru, who was floating in the water with his eyes closed. He seemed so peaceful, like he never was when he was out of the water. He opened one of his bright blue eyes, gazing directly at Makoto. Makoto observed him.

Haru turned over onto his defined stomach, and began to swim laps around the pool slowly. Makoto sighed happily. In the water was the only place where Haru was at ease. He floated on his back, his arms and legs spread out like a starfish, the sun's rays in his closed eyes.

It was peaceful for a few moments, until they heard Gou's shrill voice.

"I'm the reason that we're late? Well, I'll have you know that your alarm broke 5 days ago! I've told you over and over again but you never listen to me, do you?" She said huffily.

Makoto positioned himself upright, kicking his legs so he stayed standing. The two siblings came through the gates, Gou with her hair hastily tied in a ponytail and Rin with bags under his eyes. They were both wearing casual clothes, but they looked like they were hastily thrown on, like they had just picked them up out of their closet or off the ground at random. Rin was wearing a white shirt that read I heart Australia in English letters and jeans with flip flops (thongs, as he adamantly called them), and Gou was dressed more decently, in a rainbow leopard patterned tank top and purple shorts with converses, she was a walking colour explosion.

Rin's booming voice called through now: "You always make blame me for everything, why don't you get your own alarm or turn on the one on your phone instead of relying on mine all the time! Not to mention how _long_ it takes you to get ready!" Rin was fuming and his face was red, it seemed that they had argued all the way here.

"Eh? You have got to be the worst brother ever!"

He looked behind him. Rei and Nagisa stopped what they were doing looking at the quarrelling siblings, and Haru was floating in the water, a frown on his face.

Makoto coughed loudly, and the siblings stopped talking, apparently noticing that they had an audience.

"What?" They both barked in unison at Makoto.

He got out of the pool, crossing his arms. Gou's cheeks went bright red, though he wasn't sure why. "You have a swim team to manage." He reminded Gou. Rin smirked, apparently thinking that he was taking his side. Makoto turned to Rin. "And you have to help Rei improve his butterfly."

They both rolled their eyes. "Okay _Mom._" They shoved past Makoto, Gou sat at the edge of the pool, pouting and Rin took his bag off his back and threw it onto the ground and began to strip down to his swim suit.

Makoto looked at him with apprehension. He knew that Rin had a short temper and he wouldn't like to burn it any further, but before he could even say anything Rin jumped into the pool without a moment's hesitation and began swimming further away from him to where Rei and Nagisa were. Nagisa had somehow managed to climb upon Rei's back and had also dislodged his goggles, so he was bumping around a complaining whenever he stubbed his toe on the walls of the pool.

"H-Hey! Get off Nagisa!" He shouted. "Ouch!" He hissed as he slammed his knee into the wall, then slipped and fell backwards, Nagisa fell back into the water, and Rei regained his footing at the last moment, and as soon as Nagisa resurfaced, a grin on his face like usual, Rei began reprimanding him then snatched his goggles from Nagisa's hand and putting them on his head, not even taking a breath to pause his lecture.

Then Rin arrived between the two and guided Rei away from Nagisa to the opposite side of the pool.

"You stay there." Rin warned Nagisa. Nagisa nodded obediently. A few moments passed and then followed them to where Rin was helping Rei to improve his stroke. Rin rolled his eyes but didn't say anything, thankfully.

Makoto had walked the perimeter of the pool next to Gou, looking upon all his friends graciously. He looked towards Gou, who was frowning with her arms crossed. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that she looked tired and worn out. She wasn't her usual cheerful self.

"Gou… Is everything okay-?"

"Everything's fine." She said pertly, not looking at Makoto, she didn't even seem to realise that he said 'Gou' instead of 'Kou'

Gou was stubborn; he wasn't going to get an answer out of her anytime soon, so Makoto sighed. "Okay. Well if there is anything, we can help."

Gou didn't say anything for a while. "I'll keep that in mind. But first, we need to practise!"

Her quick change of demeanour startled Makoto. Gou stood up and started shouting for everyone else to gather around her.

"We're going to start with something easy now, okay? Just race laps across the length of the pool and try to beat your personal best!"

Makoto bit his bottom lip. He hoped that Gou and Rin would sort out whatever was bothering them, and whatever it was, he knew it wasn't over something petty like being late for swim practise.


	2. Blow Out

**Chapter 2**

**Blow Out**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Free!**

Gou called off practise prematurely as a loud crack of thunder rolled through the skies. Haru stayed behind, like he usually did after training ended, even though it was inexorably going to rain soon enough, but since they were his only peaceful moments he could get, Makoto waved goodbye to him, not totally sure he could see him, half under the water and left.

While Haru's moments of peace was in the water, Makoto's own peaceful moments were the solitary moments he spent walking to and from the swimming club, they were the times he could think clearly, the times of self-realisation for him.

The sun was clouded over by grey clouds, and a cool breeze was blowing, ruffling Makoto's still slightly damp hair. He began to walk faster, hoping to out-walk the cold weather that was inevitably going to blow through soon. He silently thanked Gou for cancelling practise before the weather began to pick up.

At the thought of Gou, Makoto wondered what was truly going on between the Matsuoka siblings to create such tension between the two. Rin was abnormally quiet at practise; when he was usually rather angry, or on rare days, quite cheerful enough to rival even Nagisa.

Makoto scuffed the soles of his shoes on the pavement. Thunder rumbled through the sky, and the first droplets of water began to fall from the clouds.

"Ah, crap." Makoto grumbled out loud. Thankfully his home wasn't too far from the pool. He picked up the pace, and a voice called out to him.

"Makoto." A calm voice said behind him. Makoto jumped, startled, and turned around.

"Haru!" Makoto exclaimed. "You scared me."

"Sorry." Haru said bluntly, he was breathing heavily; it seemed he had to run to catch up with him. Haru matched his pace alongside Makoto.

Makoto smiled. "Nice weather." He pointed out, and Haru grunted in response. They walked the rest of the way home in silence, except for when they said goodbye to each other.

That was the way that they both worked, Makoto tried to make conversation, Haru kept quiet, but most of the time, Makoto didn't need him to speak, he knew what Haru was feeling without an exchange of words, like he could read Haru's mind.

Makoto took off his shoes at his door, fished his keys out of his pocket and opened the door quietly, although he knew that his little siblings would be sure to hear the jangle of his keys and spring on him like they usually did. Makoto was sure that they spent their time waiting in front of the door for him to get home, since they were there before he even opened the door.

"Makoto!" His younger sister and brother exclaimed jovially.

Makoto grinned cheerfully, lifting the two children up in his arms, Makoto felt like they weighed nothing less than a feather in his arms, usually they would climb onto him before he was even ready, although he had expected it every day, but after his last outburst, they knew better, and besides, Makoto was feeling bad for losing his temper and yelling at them.

Makoto's father's voice echoed throughout the corridor where Makoto was.

"Eh, Makoto, don't drop those kids hey?"

Ren and Ran giggled lightly.

"Wouldn't dream of it, dad!' Makoto replied, his siblings were hanging off his arms, and Makoto adjusted them around so they were clutched against his hip instead.

"How was your day, Makoto?" Makoto's mother came from around the sliding door, smiling peacefully, like she always was.

Makoto let his siblings off, and they went running to their mother energetically. "It was okay…" He let it trail off. His mother knew immediately that something was wrong, and her eyes turned downwards, giving him a silent look. Makoto got the message: She was going to want him to talk to her later.

To other people that he knew, Makoto's mother's overbearingness would have annoyed anyone else, but Makoto didn't mind it. It meant that he knew that she cared about him and his happiness.

Makoto smiled to his mother, to let her know that he was fine, and walked to his bedroom, when he was out of sight, he slumped his shoulders and let out a deep sigh, and collapsed into the swirly chair at his desk. He wondered what it would have to take to find out what was going on with Gou and Rin.

He pulled out his phone out of his jeans pocket, tapping lightly on messages, then on Rin's name. The last text message they shared together shone brightly in the dimness of his room. He tried to think of something to write to him that wouldn't sound like he was pushing Rin to answer to him, but he couldn't think of anything.

He groaned and set his phone on his desk none too gently. A looming tower of homework was set beside it. He sighed, he never had any time to do his homework because of practise, usually doing it in the dead of night when everyone was asleep, but since he had time now, Makoto supposed he could do it.

He pulled off the first thing that was piled on top: A booklet for his English homework. Makoto sighed, he was decent at English, but the language had too many faults and words that sounded the same but meant different things… but it was basically essential to learn Basic English at least, considering all the tourists that went holidaying in Japan that would often stop to ask where some monument or temple was.

Rin was exemplary at English, since he had spent his time at the school in Australia, and Makoto would often ask him to help him with his work, but he would end up doing the whole thing for Makoto anyway, but it was becoming harder and harder to talk to Makoto. Makoto didn't hope that he was becoming jealous of Haru again; he wouldn't have been able to deal with that.

Makoto began to start to work on his work, translating English phrases to Japanese phrases.

Makoto only worked on that for a couple of minutes, when his phone started flashing: a text message.

It was from Haru.

_Somebody's trashed the pool. _

Makoto scanned the letters. It wasn't unlike Haru to go back to the pool even after he had packed up and left. He was alone most of the time, and his parents wouldn't mind, even if they knew that he goes swimming at the most irregular times, mostly in the dead of the night.

_Trashed the pool? But how? _He replied.

Haru's answer was quick. _There's graffiti on the walls and somebody has tainted the pool with some kind of orange dye. The graffiti only has one word: Nakaya. _

Makoto frowned. Wasn't that the name of the town thirty minutes outside of Iwatobi? But why would somebody graffiti the name of a town?

Makoto looked at his homework he was attempting to do, and then back at his phone. His English teacher was threatening detention if he didn't get it finished in time, and it was due in two days.

Makoto sighed. He supposed he could do his homework tomorrow. He didn't have anything planned, and since Haru was obviously asking for his help, there wasn't much he could do.

_Okay, I can get to the pool now to help clean up. Have you messaged the others?_

He waited a moment, and then Haru replied.

_Nagisa and Rei said they were busy, and I haven't had a reply from Gou or Rin._

Makoto had expected that answer, Gou and Rin hadn't been replying to any of their messages at all recently, and Makoto had failed to see why. Nagisa and Rei often rejected their requests, often unanimously.

Makoto got out of his chair, running a hand through is messy hair.

"I'm going back to the swim club!" He called out, opening his bedroom door, and walking through the corridor to the front door. His father replied, calling out a cheerful "Okay!", he heard his mother sighed, she wasn't so accepting, but she didn't say anything.

Makoto slipped his shoes back on, and made his way back to the swim club. When he arrived there, it was greatly worse than what Haru had described to him. Literally every square inch of pavement and walls, were emblazoned with dusty orange graffiti, the hiragana Nakaya, was tagged. The pool was the same colour as the paint, but also floating on top were brown leaves, sticks and dirt.

Haru who stood beside him had tears in his eyes. He turned towards Makoto searchingly.

"Who would do this?" His voice was low, but brimming with anger and hurt.

"I don't know." Makoto answered calmly. "But we'll find out, okay?" He turned towards his best friend. It pained him to see him hurt. "We'll find out." He repeated.

**A/N: I'm sorry that these all seem like filler chapters, but 1,000 word chapters are just what I'm accustomed to, everything will fall in place at the end, and I'll try to update as soon as possible so you don't have to wait too long!**


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